Most employees chose to head back to work at Nanaimo’s Western Forest Products sawmill for Tuesday’s “soft” restart.
The mill had been closed since a deadly shooting on April 30th
WFP President Don Demens says for now they’ll stick with the soft restart idea – giving the workers the choice about when to come back – and see how things go.
Brian Butler, President of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937, says the mood varied with those who witnessed the shootings needing the most support.
Work resumed at WFP’s other facilites on Monday, with a moment of silence for the men killed on April 30th — Fred McEachern and Michael Lunn.
While the healing is just beginning at Western Forest Products, a group of workers on the Sunshine Coast is further along that same road.
On March 31st of 2009, a resident being evicted from Christenson Village shot at workers and attempted a car-jacking before she was shot by RCMP. One employee at the care home was badly injured. The woman was later convicted of attempted murder.
Liz Dutton is the Director of Operations at Christenson Village. She was there that day, and says it took at least three months — and a lot of hard work — for people to start recovering.
Dutton says knowing the senior executives in the organization were ready to do everything they could to help the effected employees made a huge difference.
